{"id":1033668,"date":"2021-11-19T18:29:14","date_gmt":"2021-11-19T23:29:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1033668"},"modified":"2021-11-19T18:29:19","modified_gmt":"2021-11-19T23:29:19","slug":"report-state-ags-investigate-instagrams-impact-on-children","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/report-state-ags-investigate-instagrams-impact-on-children\/","title":{"rendered":"Report: State AGs Investigate Instagram&#039;s Impact on Children"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">16<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Freport-state-ags-investigate-instagrams-impact-on-children%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1033668&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p class=\"subheading\">According to the <em>Wall Street Journal<\/em>, the psychological effects of Facebook-owned platform Instagram on young children are being investigated by a bipartisan coalition of state attorneys general.&nbsp;Nebraska\u2019s Republican Attorney General Doug Peterson stated:&nbsp;\u201cWhen social media platforms treat our children as mere commodities to manipulate for longer screen time engagement and data extraction, it becomes imperative for state attorneys general to engage our investigative authority under our consumer protection laws.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The&nbsp;<em>Wall Street Journal<\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/instagram-effects-on-children-is-being-investigated-by-coalition-of-states-11637262000\">reports<\/a>&nbsp;that the psychological effects of the Facebook-owned photo and video-sharing platform Instagram are being investigated by a bipartisan coalition of state attorneys general, putting further pressure on Facebook (now called Meta) to address the potential harm of its platforms.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"D-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"gmxrevmore\" class=\"H\"><\/figure>\n<div id=\"attachment_18485858\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" readability=\"32\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Mark-Zuckerberg-discusses-Instagram.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-18485858\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Mark-Zuckerberg-discusses-Instagram.jpg\" alt=\"Mark Zuckerberg discusses Instagram\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mark Zuckerberg discusses Instagram (AFP\/Getty)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"attachment_15681138\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" readability=\"32\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/teenager.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-15681138\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/teenager.jpg\" alt=\"Sad teen with a phone in her bedroom - stock photo Single sad teen holding a mobile phone lamenting sitting on the bed in her bedroom with a dark light in the background\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">stock photo (Getty Images)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>The states of Massachusetts and Nebraska have led the coalition which involves at least eight states and focuses on&nbsp;\u201cthe techniques utilized by Meta to increase the frequency and duration of engagement by young users and the resulting harms caused by such extended engagement.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The attorneys general are reportedly investigating whether Facebook violated consumer protection laws and put members of the public at risk. Nebraska\u2019s Republican Attorney General Doug Peterson stated:&nbsp;\u201cWhen social media platforms treat our children as mere commodities to manipulate for longer screen time engagement and data extraction, it becomes imperative for state attorneys general to engage our investigative authority under our consumer protection laws.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Other attorneys general involved in the investigation include&nbsp;California, Florida, Kentucky, New Jersey, Tennessee, and Vermont, but the full list of states that are involved in the probe has yet to be made public.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B2\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<p>In&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/tech\/2021\/09\/14\/wsj-facebooks-internal-documents-show-company-knows-instagram-is-terrible-for-teen-girls\/\">a report&nbsp;titled \u201cFacebook Knows Instagram Is Toxic for Teen Girls, Company Documents Show,\u201d<\/a>&nbsp;the&nbsp;<em>WSJ<\/em>&nbsp;claimed that Facebook was aware that its photo-sharing app Instagram can have a negative effect on the body image of young women.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_11783592\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" readability=\"32\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Instagram-head-Adam-Mosseri.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11783592\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Instagram-head-Adam-Mosseri.jpg\" alt=\"Instagram head Adam Mosseri\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Instagram head Adam Mosseri (Steve Jennings\/Getty)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>The&nbsp;<em>WSJ&nbsp;<\/em>wrote:<\/p>\n<blockquote readability=\"20\">\n<p>\u201cThirty-two percent of teen girls said that when they felt bad about their bodies, Instagram made them feel worse,\u201d the researchers said in a March 2020 slide presentation posted to Facebook\u2019s internal message board, reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. \u201cComparisons on Instagram can change how young women view and describe themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u2026<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe make body image issues worse for one in three teen girls,\u201d said one slide from 2019, summarizing research about teen girls who experience the issues.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTeens blame Instagram for increases in the rate of anxiety and depression,\u201d said another slide. \u201cThis reaction was unprompted and consistent across all groups.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/cdn.sanity.io\/files\/k97a60yb\/production\/579f4d97875580eb08d4c28fe1d123f79d224226.pdf\">Research<\/a><a class=\"x5l\" href=\"https:\/\/cdn.sanity.io\/files\/k97a60yb\/production\/579f4d97875580eb08d4c28fe1d123f79d224226.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener external\"> by the activist group SumOfUs<\/a> appears to show that Instagram still displays posts promoting eating disorders, diet pills, and skin whitening products to teenagers. Instagram has banned some hashtags relating to eating disorders but researchers found that users can get around these restrictions by using creative hashtags that have racked up over tens of millions of posts. Breitbart News<a href=\"https:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/tech\/2021\/10\/01\/report-instagram-continues-to-promote-eating-disorders-and-diet-pills-to-teens\/\"> reported on this research in October.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Even the company\u2019s new features seemed aimed at younger users. Instagram <a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/life-style\/gadgets-and-tech\/instagram-update-phone-shake-mosseri-b1960292.html\">recently introduced a \u201crage shake\u201d feature<\/a> which allows users to physically shake their device in order to report a problem with the app. Instagram head Adam Mosseri discussed the feature, stating:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHave you ever used Instagram and it just wasn\u2019t working like it was supposed to?&nbsp;Maybe Stories didn\u2019t load, maybe the audio wasn\u2019t working, maybe you just couldn\u2019t upload a photo and it was just getting really getting you, really just pissing you off?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mosseri added: \u201cWell now, you can literally shake the phone and a little option will come up that allows you to report a problem.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Read more at the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/instagram-effects-on-children-is-being-investigated-by-coalition-of-states-11637262000\"><em>Wall Street Journal<\/em> here.<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong><i>Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter&nbsp;<\/i><i><a class=\"x5l\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/lucasnolan\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener external\">@LucasNolan<\/a>&nbsp;<\/i><i>or contact via secure email at the address&nbsp;<a class=\"x5l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/cdn-cgi\/l\/email-protection#ed81988e8c9e8382818c83ad9d9f82998283808c8481c38e8280\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener external\"><span class=\"__cf_email__\" data-cfemail=\"7519001614061b1a19141b3505071a011a1b18141c195b161a18\">[email&nbsp;protected]<\/span><\/a><\/i><i><\/i><\/strong><i><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>According to the Wall Street Journal, the psychological effects of Facebook-owned platform Instagram on young children are being investigated by a bipartisan coalition of state attorneys general.\u00a0Nebraska\u2019s Republican Attorney General &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1033668","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1033668","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1033668"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1033668\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1033668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1033668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1033668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}